Discuss the employment situation of one of J.S.

Bach with reference to aspects of

patronage, social status and/or pedagogy. Include some analysis of the relationship
between the composers working conditions and aspects of their compositional
output

Bach is often considered the grandfather of modern harmony and a staple example of high
baroque but it is interesting to note the differences between him and the other notable
composers of the baroque period namely the opera writer and Bachs contemporary
Handel. One of the most obvious differences is the very nature of the Job of the
composer in that Handel wrote for public consumption and was, mainly, a composer
working under his own conditions. Bach on the other hand was never out of service. He
dabbled in courtly life but ultimately came back, and worked for the majority of his life for,
the church, under the strict gaze of the church councils. Many would argue that this strict
regulation and restriction on Bachs creative freedom would detract from his works but in
this essay I plan to show that not only did Bachs duty to his employers not negatively
impact his music but in some cases made it transcend the other work of the time and
produce the masterful skill in harmony and counterpoint that we still are in awe of today.

Before starting an anywhere near comprehensive essay commenting on the employment

conditions of Bach it might be best to look briefly into his employment history. Bach, over
the course of his lifetime, held 6 positions as a professional musician most of them within
churches or other religious organisations. I will list the major ones that I will mention in this
essay. In June of 1708 he was called to the court of Saxe-Weimar, then being ruled jointly
by duke Erst August and Duke Wilhelm Ernst1, as Cammer Musico and Chapel organist

1Gardiner,Music

in the Castle of Heaven, London, The Penguin Group 2013, p.182

until 1714 when he was promoted to Concertmeister2. He was dismissed from that position
in 17173. Prince Leopold and the court of Anhalt/Cothen accepted him as Capellmeister in
December of 1717 and he held that position until June 1723. His final position would be
that of Music director of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig; this would be the longest time spent
in a single position spanning from 1723 until his death in July of 1750

As Bach wrote around 1126 works that we know of it may be difficult to know where to
start when looking for the correlation between Bachs work and his employment situation
therefore I am of the opinion that we should start broadly. There are two main types of
work that Bach produced, Religious and Secular. By and large the Religious works are
settings of Bible text and these include church cantatas, motets and passions/oratorios;
His secular music is, generally, instrumental works. Knowing this and placing all of the
works in the BWV catalogue in chronological order already tells us a great deal about how
Bachs employer affects his musical output. Whilst waiting to be released form the Organist
post at St Blasuis church he wrote that he had defined his life goal or Endzwerk Namely,
a well regulated or orderly church music to the glory of god4 however we see when
looking at the chronological list of works we see that for a large period he wrote mainly
chamber and concert music including the Brandenburg concertos, a lot of the solo suites
and, most notably the first book of The Well Tempered Clavier 5 This was a departure for
Bach who had mainly written religious works, particularly cantatas, and so we must ask
why. At the time he was working as music director at the court of Prince Leopold. Leopold
was a great lover of music; between 1710 and 1713 he went on a grand tour, visited the

2Gardiner,
3David,

p.184

Mendal and Wolff, The New Bach Reader, New York W.W, Norton & Company 1998, p.80

4Gardiner,
5Hanford,

Music in the Castle of Heaven, p. 180

J. and Koster, J., Complete works by year, (Website) 1995, http://www.jsbach.org/

completeyear.html, Accessed 7 Apr. 2016

opera the opera in nearly every city that he stayed in watching twelve operas within four
months in The Hague and collecting a set of twelve cantatas by the neapolitan composer
Francesco Mancini in Vienna6. His court, however, was Calvanist and so used less music
within their religious practises thus leading Bach to write mainly instrumental works. If we
compare this to the lutheran court of Saxe-Weimar we see a much higher amount of
liturgical works partially due to the use of music in lutheran services but also due to the
religious rigour of the duke Wilhelm Ernst. A question then arises about the instrumental
works that Bach produced whilst in employ of the church both before and after Cothen.
Some of his great secular works, including the second book of The Well Tempered
Clavier and The Art of Fugue were written during his time at Thomaskirche and ostensibly
Bach could have purely followed the trajectory of his Endzwerk and write church music if
he was in complete creative control. We see, however, that this is not the case; when
looking at the Agreement of duties and obligations he signed before taking the post at
Leipzig Article 6 reads to the end that the churches may not be an unnecessary expense, I
should diligently instruct the boys not merely in vocal but instrumental music7. Now we
see that it was not only assumed of him to write instrumental music but that it was part of
his contract. We think back to the first book of The Well Tempered Clavier and how
Leopold and his son were keen amateur keyboardist or the Brandenburg Concertos, so
named because they were meant as an audition for the duke of brandenburg when he
called for an example of Bachs music8. His deadlines for writing cantatas was tight,
particularly at Liepzig9 and even the performance of Passions, arguably some of Bachs

6Wikipedia,Leopold,

Prince of Anhalt-Kthen, (website) 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Leopold,_Prince_of_Anhalt-Kthen, Accessed 7 April 2016
7

Phillipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, Trans C. Bell and J.A. Fuller-Maitland, III, 1885, p.
301-302
8David,
9

Mendal and Wolff, The New Bach Reader, p. 92

Gardiner, Music in the Castle of Heaven,p. 205

greatest work, on Good Friday was a concept established by Bachs predecessor Johann
Kuhnau10.
This may be distressing to those who consider Bach a creative genius. The truth of the
matter is that Bach was a servant of an authoritative body of all his life and generally not in
control of his creative output. I would argue, however, that this fact not only is besides the
point but is also one of the reasons that Bach is the genius that we consider him to be
today. Although he wrote to commission, he also was extremely expressive in his writing
as we can see through the cantata Ich elender Mench, wer wird mich elsen. The text for
the first movement is ich elender mench, wer wird mich elsen vom Liebe dieses todes,
translated as I miserable man, who shall deliver me from the love of this death. Though
moving, this text was probably given to Bach by the church, or at least authorised by them.
Despite this, Bach can still emote the pain and torment of Miserable man through the
appoggiatura in the returning motif in the violins first seen on the first beat of bar 3. It
represents the yearning of man to know what with come after death. This worry, along with
the pain and misery11 of sin and is represented in the angular lines of the 2nd movement,
which is alto recitative. The 3rd and 7th movements, however, are the best examples of
innovation within functional music. They are chorales, 4 part hymns to be sung by the
entire congregation usually at the end of the cantata. This is where Bach's invention in the
realm of harmony comes to the for as well as his flair for the dramatic. The first chorale is
in the key of Bb major, the first major movement with the opening appearing to be in C
minor and the recitative having no fixed key centre but focusing on minor chords. This
correlates with the positive message of the text which reads:

10Wikipedia,

Passions (Bach), (website) 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passions_(Bach),

Accessed 14th April 2016
11Pamela

Dellal, Bach Cantata Translations: BWV 48 - "Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich
erlsen,(website) ,2016, http://www.emmanuelmusic.org/notes_translations/translations_cantata/
t_bwv048.htm, Accessed 14th April 2016

If it must be indeed,
that punishment and pain
must follow after sin,
so journey ahead
and spare thenceforth
and let me well atone here12

The melody for this did not come from Bach himself but rather was a hymn that would
have already been known by the congregation therefore the harmonisations are an
example of Bachs ability to know how every single note and key related to each other,
what could be done with every chord and with every change of direction 13. The chorales
show that he is flexible working within the guidelines set by his employers but the other
movements in the cantatas show a sensitivity to text, even when it was not Bach himself
that picked it.

One of the many concepts carried forward after Beethovens death is the acceptance of
the idea of the so called Artist musician14; a freelance composer that writes music for
either their own artistic satisfaction or for consumption by the public rather than some kind
of obligation. It therefore may seem strange to us that almost all of Bachs music was
written at the will of either the church or an aristocratic power, composing constantly to
commission. This, however, is what I believe to be what makes Bach one of the great
minds in classical music as well as a commonly held as a yardstick which other
compositional minds must be held up to. His music is filled with boundless invention,
12

Pamela Dellal, Bach Cantata Translations: BWV 48 - "Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich
erlsen,(website)
13

Gardiner, Music in the Castle of Heaven, p.210

14Marshall,

R., 2015, The origins of Romanticism 1:Beethoven and his legacy. Lecture, .

intelligence, wit and humanity 15but, it can be argued, more so than most others purely
because he was in a constant battle between his artistic mind and the needs of those that
employed him. Occasionally he lost. He was held in front of the consistory at Arnstadt after
complaints that he made curious variationes to the chorale and was accused of Mingling
strange tones in16 but we see that is the progressive approach to harmony that would then
make him the vastly influential and studied figure he is today. This influence came from
essential a servant of the state and of the church which could lead to functional but
ultimately forgettable music (such as that of Johann Kuhnau) however Bach both
challenged the lower status role of the professional musician and innovated within it to
create work of unfathomable genius17

15Gardiner,
16David,

Mendel and Wolff, The New Bach Reader, p.46

17Gardiner,

Music in the Castle of Heaven, p.xxxiv

Music in the Castle of Heaven, p.xxv

Bibliography
David, H., Mendel, A., & Wolff, C. (1998). The new Bach reader. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company.
Dellal, P. (2016). Emmanuel Music - Bach Cantata BWV 48 - Translation.
Emmanuelmusic.org. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from <http://www.emmanuelmusic.org/
notes_translations/translations_cantata/t_bwv048.htm>
Gardiner, J. (2013). Music in the Castle of Heaven. London. The Penguin Group
Hanford, J., & Koster, J. (2016). Complete Works\by Year. Jsbach.org. Retrieved April 7,
2016, from <http://www.jsbach.org/completeyear.html>
Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Kthen. (2016). Wikipedia. Retrieved April 7, 2016, from <https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold,_Prince_of_Anhalt-Kthen>
Marshall, R. (2015). The origins of Romanticism 1:Beethoven and his Legacy. Lecture, .
Passions (Bach). (2016). Wikipedia. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from <https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passions_(Bach)>
Spitta, P.,Translated by Bell, C., & Fuller-Maitland, J. (1885). Johann Sebastian Bach.
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